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Melba Liston, a self-taught trombonist, arranger, and composer, represented one of the first mainstream gender breakthroughs in the 1940s after she stepped onstage with legendary bandleaders like Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie. As a female jazz musician, Liston would face the inherent challenges of a male-dominated stage and recording industry in the genre. The “on-the-road” […]
WICN Hosts: 2024 Best-Of Lists Tom Nutile’s Top 12: As a lifelong reader of jazz magazines, who notes with interest their top ten lists, their five-star reviews, and who pays attention to the JazzWeek charts when planning my weekly Standard Time show on WICN, I have come to realize that all these lists mean… very […]
Often, the relationship of a legendary jazz musician to his or her developing gifted pupils reveals the reputation and assigned importance of their influence. Clark Terry, on the shortlist of any jazz musician or scholar’s evaluation of seminal trumpeters (including the flugelhorn), would also be remembered for his advocation, contribution and advancement of musical education. […]
By Doug Hall, WICN Contributing Writer In the history of jazz, there are relationships between two musicians as performers, composers, or arrangers, or all combined. Seminal examples include George and Ira Gershwin, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, Harold Land and Bobby Hutcherson, and Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Saunders. Yet, there is a distinct level of […]
Given the transitory lifestyle and traveling nature of jazz musicians in the ‘40s and ‘50s particularly, as a regular circuit of cities throughout the US offered venues reached mostly by long, often overnight bus rides—the equivalent of today’s red-eye flights–sidemen of this era often led a nomadic life. These many remarkable musicians, some more in […]
Names like Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Dizzy Gillespie often dominate jazz-world conversations about the trailblazers who revolutionized their respective instruments. Yet the equally transcendent talent of jazz pianist Bud Powell deserves to stand tall with these icons. Renowned for his innovative approach to piano playing, Powell’s music helped shape the bebop era, profoundly influencing […]
Anytime a local band in the New York and New England area finds itself voted #1 out of 64 up-and-coming bands in NYS Music’s statewide March Madness competition (in 2021), it is significant. Buffalo-based band Organ Fairchild has been described as “a musical party that won’t quit.” As referenced in the biography category on AllAboutJazz.com, […]
The circle of jazz drummers that emerged in the 1950s set a new high for talent. Certain names repeat themselves as they joined seminal jazz trios, quartets, and quintets led by legendary bandleaders. Philly Joe Jones (aka Joseph Rudolph Jones) would establish his own fiery, volatile style – often referred to as “like a machine […]